A mysterious retail guru most people have never heard of briefly surpassed Bill Gates to become the world's richest man

Zara's mysterious founder, Amancio Ortega, was the world's richest man, bypassing Bill Gates, on Friday morning, Forbes reports. His net worth peaked to $80 billion when Zara's parent company Intidex's stock peaked.

But when the stock went back down, Ortega went back to being the world's second-richest man, a title he attained in June. That's no small feat - he is richer than Warren Buffet.

But despite his impressive net worth, many people have never heard of him.

The 79-year-old Spaniard fiercely guards his privacy and gives few interviews to the press.

Ortega founded fast-fashion giant Zara with his then wife Rosalia in 1975. Today, his retail company Intidex SA - which owns Zara, as well as Massimo Dutti and Pull&Bear - has over 6,600 outposts around the world. Zara in and of itself is changing retail forever.

According to Bloomberg, Ortega's net worth is a whopping $71.5 billion as of June 2, 2015. The only person left for him to beat in this financial category? Bill Gates, who has a net worth of $85.5 billion. However, Bloomberg's data notes that since last year, Gates' net worth has decreased by $1.1 billion, while Ortega's has increased by an impressive $10.4 billion.